Julián Castro told CNN that his criticism of Joe Biden and his health care policy during Thursday’s Democratic debate was not personal and denied that he was attacking the former vice president’s memory.

Said Castro: “I wouldn’t do it differently. That was not a personal attack. This was about a disagreement over what the vice president said regarding health care policy.”

Politico: “Julián Castro has spent months in the shadow of fellow Texan Beto O’Rourke. But in the span of less than three minutes Wednesday, Castro seized on the inhumane treatment of migrants at detention centers to summon his party’s spiraling outrage over immigration, generating an elusive breakout moment at the expense of the once-high-flying O’Rourke.”

“In narrow political terms, Castro broke through punching up at a better-known rival, aggressively backing O’Rourke so far into a corner on his signature issue that he struggled in real-time to explain his position. But Castro’s righteous lashing also defined the tone of the first presidential debate of the 2020 contest, in which he and other low-polling men in need of momentum aimed their frustrations at O’Rourke, rather than the highest-polling candidate on stage, Sen. Elizabeth Warren.”

NBC News: “A poll released this week of national Latino voters had Castro, a former U.S. housing secretary and mayor of San Antonio, in fourth, with 45 percent… That was much better than Castro, the only Latino in the 2020 race, has fared in other polls on the Democratic primary race that polled fewer Latinos.”

New York Times: “Mr. Castro is in need of a breakthrough moment. Once considered a rising star in the Democratic Party — he was the first Latino to give a keynote address at the Democratic National Convention — he has been outshined in the ever-expanding field by brighter stars and nonstars alike. While he has many fans in his hometown, San Antonio, where he once served as mayor, he is not well known on the national stage. And with the sudden rise of the former El Paso congressman Beto O’Rourke, Mr. Castro is not even the most well-known candidate in his own state.”

“Still, during an interview at one of his favorite Tex-Mex restaurants, Mr. Castro seemed relatively unfazed, and maybe for good reason: At age 44, and as the only Latino candidate in the race, he would seem to satisfy the Democratic Party’s desire for youth and diversity, to say nothing of strategists who view Hispanic turnout as an important factor in winning back the White House.”

Politico: “Castro welcomed home-state colleague Beto O’Rourke into the crowded Democratic presidential primary field Thursday by releasing a list of more than two dozen elected and appointed Texas officials endorsing the former San Antonio mayor over the ex-El Paso congressman. The attempted show of force on O’Rourke’s launch day, however, may have fallen a little flat. The timing of Castro’s brushback pitch was viewed by some Democrats as unsportsmanlike.

“Texas Democrat Julian Castro, a former San Antonio mayor who went on to be the top U.S. housing official, was expected to formally announce his White House bid on Saturday, the first Hispanic in what looks to be a crowded field of candidates vying to challenge President Trump in the November 2020 election,” Reuters reports.

Texas Monthly: “The allure of San Antonio’s Castro brothers has been building for years and their status as the crown princes of a new era of Texas Hispanic politics is now well established. As one longtime Democratic consultant said, they have successfully established themselves as the next generation of leadership in Texas, with an Ivy League pedigree and reputation for strategic thinking. But something happened this election cycle: Beto O’Rourke.”

Said the Democratic consultant: “Julián and his brother are like Bing Crosby and Perry Como—who just saw Elvis.”

“Before Beto, there has been a well-choreographed buildup to the will-he-or-won’t-he moment when former San Antonio mayor and former Obama cabinet member Julián Castro announces his decision about a presidential run in 2020.”

Former Obama Cabinet secretary Julián Castro has formed a new PAC as he steps up his political activity and considers a possible run for president in 2020, Politico reports.

“Castro, long considered a rising star in the Democratic Party, has discussed his political intentions carefully, telling reporters that he will not run for office in 2018 but is not ruling out running for president… He is taking several preliminary steps associated with presidential campaigns; in addition to forming a political group, Castro is also writing a memoir.”

U.S. Housing Secretary Julián Castro said he is not being vetted to be Hillary Clinton’s running mate, the San Antonio Express News reports.

The former San Antonio mayor did not say who he thought would be a good pick for Clinton’s vice president telling reporters, “I’m not going to answer that,” and, when asked whether he’d gotten any phone calls from Clinton, he said “no, not at all.”

“Targeted by progressive activists hoping to kill his chances of being Hillary Clinton’s running mate, Julián Castro is set this week to announce changes to a hot-button Housing and Urban Development program to sell bad mortgages on its books,” Politico reports.

“Castro’s actions could potentially defuse an issue that activists have been using to question his progressive credentials — and he’ll be doing it at the moment the running mate search has begun to get serious at Clinton campaign headquarters.”

About Political Wire

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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